


From beginning to end

by Nival_Vixen



Series: 'Til the end of time [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Adorable Derek, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Children, Complete, Derek Loves Stiles, Derek-centric, Doctor Derek Hale, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hospitals, Hurt Stiles, M/M, Paediatrician Derek Hale, Protective Derek, Series, Stiles Loves Derek, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Toymaker Stiles Stilinski, Toys, Watchmaker Stiles Stilinski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-24 00:52:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2562020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nival_Vixen/pseuds/Nival_Vixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek has good and bad days. His good days begin with Stiles, and involve seeing the kids at work smiling and happy, playing and laughing with each other, and usually end with Stiles. His bad days can sometimes begin and end the same way, but the in between part is what utterly destroys him. He loves the kids in the paediatrician ward, wishes he could make every single one of them better, but he knows that logically, it's not possible. Sometimes bad things happen to good kids, and try as he might, Derek just can't change that. He's a doctor, not a wizard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From beginning to end

**Author's Note:**

> Due to the popularity of my Word of the Day fic for Horology ('Til the end of time), and people demanding a sequel, I wrote this for you 'cause you're all awesome ^_^

Derek has good and bad days. His good days begin with Stiles, and involve seeing the kids at work smiling and happy, playing and laughing with each other, and usually end with Stiles. His bad days can sometimes begin and end the same way, but the in between part is what utterly destroys him. He loves the kids in the paediatrician ward, wishes he could make every single one of them better, but he knows that logically, it's not possible. Sometimes bad things happen to good kids, and try as he might, Derek just can't change that. He's a doctor, not a wizard.

Becca has a lot of emergencies, her underdeveloped lungs and asthma are so sensitive that she can't breathe if there's too much dust in the air. Then there's Charlie who has cancer and is going through chemotherapy at the age of six. Mei Ling is sweet and shy, but she screams every time she has to have another MRI and Derek's one of the few that can calm her enough to get the scan finished. There's tens of children in his ward, and he wishes he could keep them all happy and healthy. While he may not be able to promise 100% health, he can sure as hell try for 100% happiness.

Derek's had a very bad day when he goes home to Stiles, weariness etched in his features, the smell of blood still clinging to his everything. He's spent the last 24 hours at the hospital, waiting for Grace to come out of her state medically-induced coma, to smile at him and ask for the pretty owl toy again. She didn't, her brain shutting down and heart giving up, and Derek had to tell her parents that they'd never see their daughter again. He's emotionally and physically exhausted, and it's any wonder he made it home without crashing his car somewhere.

Stiles takes one look at him, blows out the candles of the candlelit dinner he had waiting, and guides Derek to the bathroom. He murmurs something about Grace, her parents, how she might still be alive if only he'd done this or that. Stiles scolds him because he's one of the best doctors in the entire state, and if he chose to do something a particular way the first time, that's because he believed it would work. Doing it a different way would only change how fast Grace had died, and Derek had made sure she was pain-free at the end. Stiles fills the bathtub and gets Derek to slide down into the warm water, sliding in behind him and wrapping his arms around him to hold him together. Derek cries in his arms and Stiles kisses his shoulders, neck, back, every piece of skin he can reach until Derek's calm again. It's not about sex, not tonight, and when Stiles has finished washing and drying Derek off, he leads him to the bedroom to sleep. This time Stiles is the one to curl an arm around Derek's waist, and he trembles inside his embrace, slowly falling asleep.

As Derek has the next day off, he spends it with Stiles at his shop, the ticking sound comforting, and watching Stiles work is always a pleasure. He's had a lot of commissions for wind-up toys and has even sold quite a lot online. Derek told him he was selling them too cheaply, and when Stiles put three up for auction, he almost fell over when he saw just how much people were willing to pay for his toys. Stiles still makes toys for the children at the hospital, has visited them all for certain requests. Billy wanted a dragon, and Derek is so proud of Stiles because he watched and saw just how much work went into the pink-eyed creature that has a curled tail and handcrafted wings. When the key is wound up, the tail extends out and the dragon walks across the flat surface, wings flapping gently. Billy sleeps with the toy by his bed at night, telling Dr. Hale very seriously that pink is his favourite colour now because it means his dragon's watching after him. (Stiles got teary-eyed when he heard that, and honestly, so did Derek.)

"Der-bear, time to wake up," Stiles murmurs, brushing his hair back from his face and kissing his forehead. "You overslept and I overworked. Mr. Kitsch's probably left another post-it on the sign again."

Derek frowns and tries to turn away, but Stiles kisses his mouth this time, a little more eagerly, and Derek responds to that just as he always has: with utter wonder and amazement that Stiles chose him and still loves his grumpy ass. He pulls Stiles onto his lap to return the kiss, smirking when he leaves Stiles dazed and licking his lips as he goes to get the sign. (Mr. Kitsch has left three post-its on the sign, and Derek shoves them in his pocket to throw away later.)

He returns in time to see Stiles tucking something away in his bag; it's handled and wrapped just as carefully as his other toys, so Derek assumes that it's another toy for the children at the hospital. Stiles looks a little nervous when he spots Derek though, but he pretends not to have seen anything, and puts the sign away instead. Kara has been begging for another jumping frog, so maybe Stiles has finished it and wants it to be a surprise. Stiles drove them this morning, so Derek heads up to the Jeep with Stiles walking beside him, talking about their upcoming visit to Scott and Allison and their baby Robin this weekend. They don't realise they're being followed until it's too late.

"Give me all your money!" The shout echoes down the alleyway, and they both go still when they realise they're being threatened with a gun.

"All right, just stay calm. We'll give you our wallets, okay?" Derek says, hands up in what he hopes is a reassuring gesture before he reaches for his wallet in his back pocket.

Derek holds his wallet up, shows it to the guy, and then throws it a few metres away so he has to walk for it. The gunman barely blinks, gun trained on Stiles as he demands his wallet as well.

"Sure thing. Just let me find it," Stiles mutters, digging through the bag for his wallet. "My wallet's mostly full of food receipts, just so you know," he adds, barely under his breath.

"Just give me the bag!" the gunman demands.

"Whoa, no way. This bag has sentimental value. My wallet's just stuck at the bottom, I swear," Stiles babbles, digging in a bit further.

Derek raises his eyebrow slightly at that because the bag is something they'd bought at IKEA and there's no sentimental value attached to it at all.

"Ah, there it is," Stiles mutters, pulling his wallet out and throwing it in the same direction as Derek's.

The gunman walks over, slow and sideways, keeping the gun trained on them. As soon as he looks down to the wallets, Derek runs forward to tackle him to the ground. Stiles is swearing in the background, dialling his father's number so the police will arrive that much sooner. Derek's wrestling the gunman, trying to get the gun away from him, to keep Stiles safe, and then he hears the gunshot, the noise reverberating in his ears, and Stiles cries out in pain. Stiles. Not him, not the gunman. _Stiles_. A red haze takes over his vision as he punches the gunman over and over, only fading when he's sure the man won't get up again and Stiles' calls get through to him.

"Hey, Derek, you can stop now. It's okay, I don't think he'll be a threat anymore. Can, uh, can you just tell my dad we need an ambulance?" Stiles asks, holding out the phone weakly.

Derek takes the phone quickly, tells the Sheriff what's happened and they need an ambulance, and hangs up to look after Stiles. The bullet looks like it went straight through, and Derek makes sure to keep pressure on Stiles' wound to stop the flow of blood.

"So, this isn't how I expected tonight to end," Stiles mutters, trying to smile.

"Why didn't you just give him the bag, Stiles?" Derek asks, heart racing as he tries to determine whether Stiles will be okay.

It's like everything he's ever learned and trained for has just slipped out of his brain at the sight of his ... his Stiles bleeding out beside his Jeep, and all he can remember is he has to keep pressure on the wound. It's gone through his stomach, so there might be internal bleeding, but he won't know until he gets to the hospital and does a scan. He's going to clear every damn operating theatre if he has to so Stiles can be seen to and fixed. He has to be fixed, he has to.

"Why did you tackle him?" Stiles counters. "Could've just let him walk off with the wallets."

"He had a gun on us, Stiles. He was probably going to shoot us for everything else we had. Including your bag," Derek adds pointedly, and Stiles' fingers clutch around his bag tightly before he fishes a hand in to grab something.

"Made something for you," Stiles says, offering the wrapped present to him.

The wrapping's covered in blood, and Derek takes it with his free hand, kissing Stiles firmly as the ambulance arrives with a blare of sirens. The paramedics ask Derek questions, and he answers the best he can while they work on getting Stiles' bleeding under control and put him on a stretcher. Derek rides in the back of the ambulance with them, holding Stiles' hand in one hand, his present in the other, and watches the rise and fall of Stiles' chest in time with the ticking of his watch.

The Sheriff's at the hospital when they arrive, along with Scott and Laura. Allison's sick and medicated with flu tablets, so she stayed at home with Robin, and Cora's at college interstate, but they'd both be here if they could be. Derek only cares about Stiles, and he doesn't realise he's almost crushing the present in his hand until Laura asks about it. He's curious to see why this thing was so important to Stiles, so he unwraps it, and gives a little smile at the sight of the wind-up bear. Its stomach isn't clear as the other toys are, and Derek looks closer to see the words 'Marry me?' written there in Stiles' fancy cursive handwriting. He feels weak at the knees and has to sit down, and the Sheriff puts a hand on his back as he gasps for air.

Laura turns the key and sets the bear down, and they all watch as it moves along the floor in the shape of a heart. It's corny and he loves it, he loves Stiles, he wants to scream 'yes, I'll marry you!' at the top of his lungs, but Stiles is in surgery and Derek can't be in there because it's not his field of expertise and he'd never forgive himself if something went wrong, and besides, his hands are shaking too much. His hands are still covered with blood, and Scott guides him to the bathroom to watch as he cleans and scrubs every bit of blood off, real and imaginary.

Melissa is one of the nurses in the emergency theatre with Stiles, and as soon as Derek sees her come out, scrubs bloodied and face covered in a sheen of sweat, he doesn't know if he wants to demand answers or hide. _Fuck, every parent he's talked to must hate every fibre of his being_.

"He's okay. Stiles was lucky; there was no internal bleeding, and no major arteries were hit. He's still unconscious, but we're transferring him to a room now, if you'd like to go wait for him," Melissa offers, and they all nod quickly.

Melissa doesn't bother stating that there should only be two visitors at a time; they're not going to leave, and in their position, she wouldn't either. Derek picks up his little bear, torn between wanting to hold it delicately and squeezing his hand around it to keep it with him, and goes through to the rooms with the others following quickly.

Stiles' bed is wheeled in and set up, and the doctor talks with Derek in soft words, explaining the surgery in a technical way that the other three don't understand. He nods, thanks the doctor, and sits beside Stiles' bed to wait. Melissa comes in about an hour later and tells Derek that he's not expected to work tomorrow. It's not a request. The Sheriff stays as long as he can, but he does have to go to work, though he promises to call in during his lunch break to check on Stiles. Scott has to see how Allison and Robin are doing with their colds, and Laura has to get ready for work as well. Soon, it's just Derek, Stiles, and the little wind-up bear he could have died for.

...

The kids in Derek's ward hear about Stiles through the nurses, and over the course of the day, Derek finds that he's not really alone. Becca comes first, mask keeping her mouth covered, and she places her wind-up wolf on Stiles' bedside table to keep him company. Charlie comes next with Mei Ling helping him along carefully, and an owl and frog sit with the wolf. Billy leaves his dragon, saying that Stiles needs him more than he does, Monique leaves her rabbit, and even Tommy, who's hardly let go of his octopus since receiving it, doesn't hesitate to leave it for Stiles.

Stiles wakes some time around lunch to find an assortment of animals beside him, Derek dozing on the armchair beside his bed, and a bear resting on the blanket between his knees. Stiles frowns at it, taking a minute for his drug-addled brain to remember what the bear was for. His eyes widen and he grabs it quickly, turning the bear over to read the post-it stuck to the back. YES, three little letters written there in Derek's handwriting. He probably took a full five minutes to write something so neatly because Stiles has seen his awful doctor writing, and knows how much concentration it takes for him to write in a normal legible way.

"Hey, Derek," Stiles calls, and Derek wakes up immediately, almost sliding off the armchair when he momentarily forgets where he is.

"Stiles? You're okay?" Derek breathes, rushing over to him to check for himself.

"Yes. Drugs are good. Unless there're kids around?" Stiles adds, looking around to make sure they're alone.

"They all came to visit. Wanted to make sure their favourite toymaker was all right and protected," Derek adds, nodding to the animals.

"So I saw. I'll have to give them back myself, thank the kids for letting them watch over me," Stiles says, smiling at the collection of toys before he turns his attention back to the bear. "So... I see you like my bear?"

Derek grins. "Love it. Love you, too," he adds, pressing a kiss to his dry and chapped mouth.

"Love you, too," Stiles murmurs, fingers carefully threading through his and squeezing gently. "Did you see the engraving?"

"Uh, no. There's an engraving?" he asks, curiously and confused. He's looked at that bear from top to bottom and hadn't seen an engraving anywhere.

Stiles grins at him and carefully unclips the bear's stomach, showing him the engraving around the edge. Derek didn't even know the thing unclipped, so he takes it and reads the small print carefully.

 _For my Der-bear, 'Til the end of time. Stiles_.

"Took me a whole day to get the engraving right, the spacing for that many words had to be really precise, but it was so worth it."

Derek kisses Stiles until they both have trouble breathing, and he pulls away with a heaving chest, buries his face against Stiles' neck and peppers his skin with light kisses. He's so grateful that Stiles is alive and okay, that he gets to begin and end his day with someone he truly loves, and will continue to do that for the rest of their time together.

...

The end.

Thanks for reading!


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